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May 12, 2008

G41: Twins 7, Red Sox 3

Buchholz struggled again (4.1-8-7-5-4, 90) and the Red Sox's early 3-0 lead -- helped by Manny Ramirez's #498 career home run -- vanished.

Unlike Sunday night, there was no comeback. Although Minnesota retired the Red Sox in order only once, Boston had no runner advance past second base from the second to the ninth innings. Indeed, after the first, only three Red Sox made it past first.

J.D. Drew went 3-for-4 and Alex Cora and Manny each had two hits. Craig Hansen pitched a perfect seventh inning -- two groundouts and a strikeout on 13 pitches.

I got the Manny jersey the winter we got him. Granted it was a replica. But they were only 50 bucks back then. I still wear it--even though there's a permanent Sharpie mark on it from Veteran's Stadium.

DFA can also be a prelude to a trade, and there's been plenty of trade talk with Colorado. I haven't seen any speculation about any interest in Timlin. (Maybe Milwaukee needs a new closer for their new committee.)

I think it also has to do with what's expected of each. They believe Timlin can still get the 3 outs in a relatively low-leverage situation. Tavarez's advantages have been nullified: Aardsma's a better long man, and several others are better backup starters.

I didn't know any Sox fans (as distinguished from Sox-covering columnists) who hated Manny. The furthest anyone got was questioning whether he was providing a good return on his (then-high, now-typical) salary.

As for Fenway reaction--it seems like you always had the one fan in your section who'd yell at Manny to hustle or whatever, and I'd just assume the guy read Dirt Dogs the day before and was told he should hate Manny. But the for the most part the at-the-park love was always there, as opposed to your call-in show people and journalists.

They're showing how the bat boy goes out to the ump with special marked balls for the ump when Manny comes up, then takes them back and puts them in the "Manny box" under his chair after the at bat. Since the milestone HR is coming up. Standard practice nowadays for MLB.

Here's a video I made with a great Castig/Trup call of the play where Tavarez dove at the guy at on second from the mound when time was out. Rare to hear Trup and Castig cracking up like that. (The video is just shots I took of the two of them at Fenway--better than a blank screen.) I love the sound of the guy in the background losing it.

hey espn -- if HH is throwing too many breaking balls and getting knocked around, why don't you mention that one way to stop that might be FOR THE CATCHER TO START CALLING FOR OTHER KINDS OF PITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NESN just showed it. He caught it, touched second--and the guy you saw just past second was the runner on first originally, as both runners were running on the pitch. So he tagged that guy for the 3rd out.